Indexes reviewed

Edited by Christine Shuttleworth

These extracts from reviews do not pretend to represent a Franklin, Beedle & Associates: Internet today: email, searching and complete survey of all reviews in journals and newspapers. We the World Wide Web, by E. Ackerman and K. Hartman (1999, offer only a selection from quotations that members have sent 286 pp, £35). Rev. by Jane Dorner, LOGOS 11(1), 2000. in. Our reproduction of comments is not a stamp of approval There’s a good index and glossary. from the Society of Indexers upon the reviewer’s assessment of Four Courts Press: Essays on the history of Trinity College Library, an index. , ed. by Vincent Kinane and Ann Walsh (2000, 206 pp, Extracts are arranged alphabetically under the names of £35). Rev. by Paul Sturges, Library Association Record 102(7), July 2000. publishers, within the sections: Indexes praised; Two cheers!; It is topped off with a good index . . . Indexes censured; Indexes omitted; Obiter dicta. HarperCollins: Boris Yeltsin: a revolutionary life, by Leon Aron (934 pp, £29.99). Rev. by Peter Millar, Sunday Times, 2 Jan 2000. Indexes praised Aron . . . has produced a comprehensive and painstakingly well- researched – and indexed – study that will be definitive when the Allen Lane: The total library: non-fiction 1922–1986, by Jorge Luis obituary columns allow him to add a final chapter. [Could this Borges, ed. by Eliot Weinberger (£20). Rev. by Thomas Wright, perhaps have been put more sensitively?] Daily Telegraph, 29 Jan. 2000. [see also Obiter dicta, below] This anthology is superior to the two previous Allen Lane collec- tions in other respects. It contains competent annotations and a Headline: The second creation: the age of biological control by the useful index. . . scientists that cloned Dolly, by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and Colin Tudge (362 pp, £18.99). Rev. by Anne McLaren, Nature Atheneum: Outside and inside sharks, by Sandra Markle (1966). 403, Feb. 2000. Rev. by Barbara Fisler, Rockford Register Star, 24 June 2000. There is a useful glossary and an adequate index. . . A pronunciation guide, list of amazing facts and combination glos- sary and index are valuable additions to the text. Kogan Page: Mining the Internet: information gathering and research on the Net, by Brian Clegg (1999, 147 pp, £9.99). Rev. by Bernard Cambridge University Press: The new Cambridge medieval history, Williams, Library Association Record 102(2), Feb. 2000. vol. 5: c. 1198–c. 1300, ed. by David Abulafia (1045 pp, £75). It works very well, making the book suitable for both cover to cover Rev. by Elisabeth Van Houts, Times Literary Supplement,16 reading and as a reference tool (its role here enhanced by a June 2000. comprehensive index). [Despite some criticisms] this volume is a monumental achieve- ment for which the editor and his contributors deserve thanks. The Library Association Career Development Group: Science fiction, bibliographies, maps and index are excellent. . . fantasy and horror: a reader’s guide (1999, 416 pp, £25). Rev. by Chris Batt, Library Association Record 102(2), Feb. 2000. Dial: In our time: memoir of a revolution, by Susan Brownmiller On the plus side there are useful indexes listing sequels, series, (336 pp, $24.95). Rev. by Dawn Trouard, Washington Post,30 read-on authors and titles. So as a finding aid it has some worth... Jan. 2000. it provides a comprehensive index of a very good swathe of its three The book’s happenstance methodology [is] redeemed somewhat genres. by a top-notch index... McFarland & Co.: Plagiarism, copyright violation and other thefts of Geological Society: Building stones of Edinburgh,byA.A. intellectual property: an annotated bibliography with a lengthy McMillan, R. J. Gillanders and J. A. Fairhurst (2nd edn, 1999, 235 introduction, by Judy Anderson (1988, 201 pp). Rev. by Barbara pp, £9.50). Rev. by Ian Sims, Geoscientist 10(2), Feb. 2000. Rockenbach, Journal of Scholarly Publishing, Jan. 2000. Admirably, there is a thorough and effective index. [Index by SI In addition to her interesting perspective, Anderson has provided members Paul Nash and Jane Angus.] extensive author, title, and subject indexes that any librarian or Faber & Faber: The Faber book of Utopias, ed. by John Carey (£20). scholar will appreciate. These indexes are invaluable to the Rev. by Isabel Quigly, The Tablet, 20 Nov. 1999. researcher at any level. If you are vaguely familiar with a plagiarism case, the subject index allows you to find it if you know any of the The best introduction to the subject of The Faber Book of Utopias is key players or details. The subject index also aids in drawing not the contents page or the index, though both are useful and send together areas of interest, such as plagiarism and art. The title one (me, anyway) scuttling forwards or backwards into the book. index is less valuable, but with 610 annotated citations it can be No, the best is Professor Carey’s own introduction. . . helpful. Fitzroy Dearborn: Encyclopedia of historians and historical writing, McGraw-Hill: Medical-surgical nursing, by Charlene J. Reeves, ed. by Kelly Boyd (2 vols, 1562 pp, £175). Rev. by Paul Smith, Gayle Roux and Robin Lockhart (1998, 630 pp, $37.00). Rev. by Times Literary Supplement, 4 Feb. 2000. Diana Mathis, AMWA Journal 15(2), Spring 2000. All the titles appearing among principal writings and all the The ‘Appendix,’ which is a relatively short list of abbreviations authors and editors of works appearing among further reading are (why not just label it ‘Abbreviations’?) is followed by an adequate separately indexed, the index of the latter thus covering a very large index. span of historical literature and enabling the reader to pursue the work of a considerable number of historians who do not have a Macmillan: Annuals and biennials, by Roger Phillips and Martyn personal entry – a faintly forlorn band of spearbearers, this last, but Rix (1999, 288 pp, £19.99). Rev. by Janet J. Cubey, The Garden, some of whom will be contending for full recognition in a subse- May 2000. quent edition. . . . the index is easy to use and has common and Latin names.

100 The Indexer Vol. 22 No. 2 October 2000 Indexes reviewed

Oxford University Press: Freedom from fear: the American people in Henry Brougham, David Brewster, Denis Johnston and Samuel Depression and war, 1929–45, by David M. Kennedy (936 pp, Beckett appear in the text but not in the index; many others appear £30). Rev. by Jim Potter, Times Literary Supplement, 10 March in the text more often than the index allows. ‘Feelings’ and ‘frivol- 2000. ity’, however, are both indexed, with a single entry apiece. There is a bibliographical essay of thirteen pages (though an alpha- Perhaps a distinguished publishing house can treat these betical listing would have been better) and a fifty-page index with mistakes and inconsistencies as incidental, but the carelessness some 2,000 entries. finds its way into what some still consider the higher levels of argu- ment and definition . . . Oxford University Press: Invitation to Christian spirituality, ed. by John R. Tyson (£37.50/£19.99). Rev. by Humphrey J. Fisher, The Bowker Saur: Only connect: shaping networks and knowledge for the Reader 97(2), Summer 2000. new millennium, by Trevor Haywood (330 pp, £35). Rev. by There is a good index. Martin White, LOGOS, 11, 2000. To make matters even worse (if that is in fact possible), the Penguin Books: The buildings of England: 4: North,by publishers need to bear responsibility for a truly appalling index Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner (1998, xxii + 808 pp, £30). and careless copy-editing. Rev. by Terence Paul Smith, London Archaeologist, 9(3) 1999. A well illustrated glossary (as in all volumes) and extensive indexes Clarendon Press: The Oxford companion to the year, by Bonnie are a great aid to effective use of the work. Blackburn and Leofranc Holford-Strevens (937 pp, £35). Rev. by Donald Whitton, Times Literary Supplement, 4 Feb. 2000. Rodale Press (Emmaus, PA): The complete book of men’s health: If I had any complaint about the way the book is assembled, it the definitive, illustrated guide to healthy living, exercise, and sex,by would be that things you know must be there are not always easy to the Editors of Men’s Health® Books (1998, 288 pp, $31.95). find. But here the general bibliography is mixed up with the index Rev. by Jane Z. Dumsha, AMWA Journal 15(2), Spring 2000. of sources, which in turn covers both the works cited, and the refer- One minor flaw is that the key to the background colors used for ence books and authorities consulted by the compilers, and the the various types of text boxes is buried on the Acknowledgments excellent glossary gives no references. So the reader has to guess page. Placing this key in the table of contents or in the index might where to find what further information he may desire. better serve those who are searching for a particular category, such as Quizzes and Quotes. . . . However, the carefully prepared index Clarendon Press: Virgil’s experience – nature and history: times, does reference the material inside the boxes, thereby permitting names and places, by Richard Jenkyns (712 pp, £50). Rev. by readers to locate information by subject. Elaine Fantham, Times Literary Supplement, 4 Feb. 2000. There is also a major problem for the reader trying to retrace refer- Spink: Victoria Cross bibliography, by John Mulholland and Alan ences: the book needs either running heads or sections for its Jordan (xvii + 217 pp, £25). Rev. in Library Association Record lengthy chapters (fifty to eighty pages), or again a much fuller 102(3), March 2000. index, to help track down ideas which provoke interest. Jenkyns’s The index lists, in alphabetical order, every VC recipient and gives index lists Hitler, Napoleon, de Gaulle and de Valera (all on page the date of the London Gazette citation. It also names the books in 105), mere frills on his argument, but ignores Apollo, and which the recipients are mentioned significantly, enabling the Hercules; Austin Farrer has two entries: religion and myth none. researcher to quickly identify key works. On the other hand, major motifs, like the pathetic fallacy (recur- Yale University Press: The Parisian worlds of Frédéric Chopin,by ring many times, and with multiple index entries) would have been William G. Atwood (470 pp, £19.95). Rev. by George Walden, better treated once and for all as an element of organization. , 6 Feb. 2000. Jenkyns’s structure is chiefly that of a lecture series on a set text, not one of topic or argument. (It is organization by topic, combined with a Like many Yale University Press books this one is immaculately full index that makes, for example, Gordon Williams’s 800-page produced, with over 50 pages of notes and index. Tradition and Originality in Roman Poetry, 1969, relatively accessible.) Faber & Faber: Promiscuity: an evolutionary history of sperm compe- Two cheers! tition and sexual conflict, by Tim Birkhead (2000, 272 pp, £9.99). Rev. by A. H. Harcourt, Nature 406, 6 July 2000. Clarendon Press: English Renaissance literary criticism, ed. by Brian I have only two regrets about this book. One is that the index is so Vickers (655 pp, £55). Rev. by Alastair Fowler, Times Literary sparse, as seems to be the case for so many books nowadays. The Supplement, 9 June 2000. other is that, although human promiscuity and its consequences Most of the entries in an ambitious glossary give only a bare are discussed, ‘human’ does not appear in the index, not even in the synonym. Not being keyed to the texts, these run the risk of special index of animal species mentioned in the text. The omission misleading. Without getting into lexicography, Vickers might have is a pity. The book not only corrects some misapprehensions about supplied more analysis: ‘conceit’, for example, is glossed as ‘idea, human promiscuity, but is engagingly enough written for many thought, mental conception, invention’. He treats several hard readers initially interested only in humans to carry on reading. words perfunctorily, or omits them altogether, like ‘poesy’ (ie, fiction); ‘move’; ‘image’; ‘wit’; ‘decorum’; ‘allegory’. The index is Dorothy L. Sayers Society: The letters of Dorothy L. Sayers, vol. 4, admirably efficient as regards rhetorical figures and other brief 1961–1957, ed. by Barbara Reynolds (£25). Rev. by Anthony entries; but the longer entries again needed subdivision. Lejeune, The Tablet, 22/29 April 2000. . . . her care for the technicalities of literary production is agreeably illustrated by a list of stern injunctions to the publishers of her Indexes censured translation of the Purgatorio. All these rules are faithfully observed in the present volume – all save one. Miss Sayers abhorred ‘indexes Blackwell: Scholars and rebels in nineteenth-century ,by consisting of mere strings of page numbers, without classification’. Terry Eagleton (177 pp, £45/£13.99). Rev. by Kevin Barry, Times If we look in the index here for ‘Reynolds, Barbara’, we find 70 Literary Supplement, 2 June 2000. page numbers but nothing to tell us which of them refers, for Itis...aninformal study with some large pretensions, and no example, to ‘Reynolds, Barbara, baptism of’. apology can excuse its multiplicity of errors, its loose thinking, or clichéd ripostes. The errors multiply at every level. Inaccuracies HarperCollins: C. S. Lewis: collected letters vol. 1 – 1905–1931, ed. and inconsistencies mar the text . . . Throughout the index there are by Walter Hooper (£25). Rev. by Murrough O’Brien, Daily Tele- omissions and false inclusions: there is confusion between the graph, 10 June 2000. Dublin University Magazine and the Dublin University Review; The editor’s only fault is one that many could be accused of: that, in Maclise, Flood, Burton, Bentham, F. D. Maurice, Gladstone, compiling the index, he refers us to pages which do not mention the

The Indexer Vol. 22 No. 2 October 2000 101 Indexes reviewed

subject we wanted to investigate. [But was it the editor who compiled This diary, which reveals much about Trevor Beeson [a former the index?] canon at Westminster Abbey], has revelations which may shock old colleagues. The inadequate index means that they will have to read Hodder & Stoughton: The Guinness spirit, by Michèle Guinness the entire book – but like many books which should not have been (£18.99). Rev. by Hugh Montefiore, Church Times, 11 Feb. 2000. published it is very enjoyable. Michèle Guinness has taken on a mammoth task in describing her husband’s huge clan. I counted 145 Guinnesses in the (wholly inad- St Paul’s Bibliographies/Oak Knoll Press: Vita Sackville-West: a equate) index, many of them with the same christian name, and 15 bibliography, by Robert Cross and Ann Ravenscroft-Hulme of them clergy. (1999, £50). Rev. by Stuart N. Clarke, Virginia Woolf Bulletin (of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain), No. 4, May 2000. Library Association Publishing: Introduction to modern informa- None of this [a series of criticisms] would matter if there were an tion retrieval, by G. G. Chowdhury (1999, 452 pp, £39.95). Rev. adequate index, but there is not. Here we are not only in the by Alan R. Thomas, Library Association Record 102(4), April realm of hard slog, but worse, that of spoiling the ship for a 2000. ha’porth of tar. This is my only substantive criticism of the bibli- This work deserves a decent index, but regrettably, the one which is ography, but it is a serious one. Perhaps an inadequate index provided falls quite short of the mark. However, it should be reduces the use of a bibliography by about a third or even one feasible to devise a replacement in a new printing. half. What the compilers are unwittingly saying is: ‘If you aren’t Among instances of inadequate indexing and referencing, DDC is devoted to the works of V. Sackville-West, you don’t deserve to indexed and has a ‘see also’ reference to the full name; the full name find the information you’re looking for.’ Secondhand book- entry has a ‘see also’ to the abbreviated form; to obtain the total sellers and others seem to delight in stating ‘Not in...’andI range the user must add up the two lists of locators (some of which foresee ‘Not in Cross and Ravenscroft-Hulme’ becoming a are common to both). Similar problems occur with LCSH and with refrain. There are two indexes: a ‘Main Index’ and a ‘Poetry BT. There is no access under the full name of AACR, nor under the Index’. The latter is more thorough than the former which full name for UDC and the latter has a locator error. [Of all books, it concentrates on Section A. Here is a perfectly reasonable ques- is particularly unfortunate that this one should have a faulty index.] tion: ‘Did VSW ever review any of Virginia Woolf’s works?’ This Library Association Publishing: Teaching the internet to library staff bibliography will not tell you – unless you check the 1176 entries and users: 11 ready-to-run workshops that work, by William D. in Section E. There are seven references to Woolf in the ‘Main Hollands (1999, 220 pp, £39.95). Rev. by Anna Katrami, Index’, all but one referring to Section A. To aid Woolfians, here Managing Information, Jan. 2000. are another twenty-one: A21, 29; B23, 50; C7; E163, 306, 321, The book has a relatively small index, but a fairly good list of 431–2, 786, 817; G7–8, 11, 14, a2; J16, 23; K6. And how will you further reading and resources. find Michael Stevens’ biography, by the way? Only by trial and error, but I’ll put you out of your misery – it’s at J15. The lack of Rev. by Pat Thornill, Library Association Record 102(3), March adequate indexes is presumably Mr Cross’s responsibility, for he 2000. is not only the principal compiler but also the publisher. The The book would benefit from some illustrations, perhaps some index to the same publisher’s Leonard Woolf: a Bibliography was screen dumps; a good index; guidance on more complex searching; even worse, and was obviously the result of publishing policy. and the use of the various search engines. The compilers anticipate future electronic publication – ‘e- commerce’ as we must learn to call it. When that occurs, this crit- Longman: Crime in early modern England, 1550–1750,byJ.A. icism will be vieux chapeau. Until then, the lack of adequate Sharpe (2nd edn, 1999, 291 pp, £14.99). Rev. by Malcolm indexes cannot be regretted enough. [A footnote adds, with refer- Gaskill, History Today 50(3), March 2000. ence to Leonard Woolf: a Bibliography, ‘This bibliography is The only absent improvement is an expanded index, a minor flaw in more straightforward than VSW’s, but with 1566 periodical items the first edition. Such observations are trivial, however, compared and a worse index, it is even more inaccessible’.] with the book’s achievements. Crime in Early Modern England is important not just as a functional vade-mecum, but because it Sutton Publishing: The apothecaries’ garden: a new history of the suggests directions in which the subject might be developed in the Chelsea Physic Garden, by Sue Minter (£25). Rev. by Peter future. [But how functional is a book with a poor index?] Parker, Daily Telegraph, 27 May 2000. . . . the index is woefully inadequate . . . Macmillan: The final years of Hong Kong: the discourse of colonial withdrawal, by John Flowerdew (258 pp, £45). Rev. by Jonathan Mirsky, Times Literary Supplement, 15 May 1998. Flowerdew, excellent at confrontational writing if not discourse, Indexes omitted does not like [Chris] Patten’s style: ‘His use of metaphor, for Bookseller Publications: Book retailing in Britain (1999, 200 pp, example, shows up his ethnocentrism . . .’ It is hard to know what he £395). Rev. by Ian Norrie, LOGOS 11(1), 2000. means by this. There are two references to metaphor in the index, Just this selection of topics is further evidence of the breadth of the neither of them helpful. Perhaps he means that using metaphors is survey; it highlights the need for an index. a British rather than Chinese habit. Gracewing: Pius XII and the Second World War: according to the Oxford University Press: Karl Barth: against hegemony, by Timothy Vatican archives, by Pierre Blet SJ (£17.99). Rev. by John J. Gorringe (£40/£14.99). Rev. by John Davies, Church Times,10 Pollard, The Tablet, 26 Feb. 2000. March 2000. Though this book was first published in French in 1997, the quality A niggle: there are some infuriating disconnections between the of the translation of this English version is poor and there is no index and the main text. Even OUP nods, apparently. [And not for subject index. These deficiencies would suggest that it was rather the first time.] rushed into print for the English-speaking market in anticipation Politico’s: Fourth among equals, by Bill Rodgers (310 pp, £20). Rev. of the publication of John Cornwell’s biographical memoir of Pius by John Grigg, , 6 May 2000. XII, Hitler’s Pope. The book is well produced, with excellent illustrations. But for HarperCollins: Life without genes, by Adrian Woolfson (2000, 409 future editions I hope it will be given a proper index, with itemised pp, £17.99). Rev. by John Godfrey, Nature 405(6787), 8 June entries. A list of names followed by a string of numerals is not 2000. worth having – though too often all that we get. Most will learn a lot, but may be irritated by the lack of an index, or SCM: Window on Westminster, by Trevor Beeson (£19.95). Rev. by even reference from the text to the extensive bibliography. Leigh Hatts, London Link, Summer 1999. HarperCollins, please note.

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Headline: Time: from micro-seconds to millennia – a search for the Oxford University Press: The Oxford companion to fairy tales, ed. right time, by Alexander Waugh (277 pp, £18.99). Rev. by by Jack Zipes (601 pp, £35). Rev. by Andrew Wawn, Times Randolph Stow, Times Literary Supplement, 31 March 2000. Literary Supplement, 9 June 2000. It was a worthwhile idea to assemble a book on this subject, and its Some will regret the absence of an index, but all should celebrate organization – into chapters headed ‘Initium’, ‘Momenta’, the inclusion of a comprehensive bibliography. ‘Minutae’, ‘Horae’, ‘Dies’, etc. – is reader-friendly. . . . But it is Penguin Classics: The fight and other writings, by William Hazlitt, hardly a reference book for the student’s shelf, lacking as it does ed. by Tom Paulin and David Chandler (£9.99). Rev. by Nich- both index and bibliography. olas Lezard, , 10 June 2000. Rev. by Ben Rogers, Sunday Telegraph, 26 Dec. 1999. Another gripe is the lack of an index. This is, emphatically, not a scholarly book – there are no references Peter Lang: The correspondence of Jonathan Swift, DD, in four and no index – but it is occasionally entertaining. volumes, Vol. 1: Letters 1690–1714, nos 1–300, ed. by David Kingsway: Questions of science, by Andrew Barton (314 pp). Rev. Woolley (650 pp, £240 for the complete set). Rev. by Claude by Rev. Ursula Shone, Church of England Newspaper, 10 March Rawson, Times Literary Supplement, 10 March 2000. 2000. There is no index to this 650-page volume, dealing with hundreds The list for further reading could be more extensive, and an index of persons, books and events. For this we must await the fourth would have added to its worth. volume, though best practice calls for provisional indexes for indi- vidual volumes pending completion of a long-term project. Since Little, Brown: The third woman: the secret passion that inspired The this first volume has been several years in the making, the likeli- End of the Affair, by William Cash (318 pp, £14.99). Rev. by Ian hood of an index becoming available within a reasonable time Hamilton, Sunday Telegraph, 13 Feb. 2000. seems small. Like other reviewers of The Third Woman, I was originally sent a ring-bound proof copy of the book to work from. This provisional Routledge: Fifty contemporary choreographers, ed. by Martha (as I thought) text carried several errors (wrong spellings, Bremser (1999, 224 pp, £14.99). Rev. by Allen Robertson, Dance misdatings, as well as straightforward grammatical absurdities). Now 8(4), Winter 99/00. There were also some questionable ‘facts’ which I assumed would By its very format this survey book is virtually an index of itself. be footnoted in the finished product. Even so, a selective index would have proved a useful aid to anyone As a result, I held back my review until I’d seen the final text . . . wanting to compare and contrast or to form links among individual Well, now I’ve seen the bound version, and as far as I can tell from a artists. necessarily high-speed inspection, it is the same book that I strug- Sutton Publishing: Whithorn and St Ninian: the excavation of a gled through in proof. The errors I noted are intact, the bad writing monastic town, 1984–91, by Peter Hill (640 pp, £45). Rev. in is still just as bad, and there are no footnotes. Nor is there an index. Current Archaeology 167, March 2000. The general impression is of shoddiness and haste, and for this, presumably, we have to blame the publisher’s eagerness to – so to The book ends with another innovation, if that is the right term: speak – cash in on the current film-link. ...Asreaders, all we can there is no index. Whether this is deliberate, and the author is do is to hope that Little, Brown get what they deserve. But what do saying that in a book like this where everything is laid out logically, they deserve? Is there a book-world equivalent of ‘straight to there is no point in having an index, I do not know. video’? Taylor & Francis: Science in the making, vol. 3: 1900:1950, ed. by E. Macmillan: The promise of sleep, by William C. Dement and Chris- A. Davis (1998, vii + 423 pp, £59.95). Rev. by Sir John Meurig topher Vaughan (466 pp, £16.99). Rev. by Anthony Daniels, Thomas, Chemistry & Industry, 16 Aug. 1999. Sunday Telegraph, 30 Jan. 2000. . . . the book lacks an index or a proper contents page. True, the The book has no index and no bibliography. page numbers for each section are given at the beginning, but a more detailed listing would help the interested reader to find out Macmillan Reference: The world today: essential facts in an ever precisely where the great experiments described in this book are to changing world, 2000 (2000, 1097 pp, £14.99). Rev. by Malcolm be found. However, these are minor quibbles concerning an other- Stacey, Library Association Record 102(5), May 2000. wise magnificent book. [Why must reviewers so often apologize for The new publication makes no acknowledgement of its illustrious complaints about the poor quality or absence of an index by calling origins [the Statesman’s Yearbook]; it offers no preliminaries or them ‘minor quibbles’?] index . . . Viking: Several strangers: writing from three decades, by Claire Oxford University Press: Bibliography of the works of Samuel Tomalin (248 pp, £18.99). Rev. by Anthony Thwaite, Sunday Johnson, ed. by J. D. Fleeman (2 vols, 2000 pp, £280). Rev. by Telegraph, 16 Jan. 2000. Jim McCue, The Times, 14 June 2000. ...itwill be essential material for some future biographer of her Here then are two volumes bursting with information. Unfortu- second husband, Michael Frayn. Something that writer will nately, it is hard to retrieve and understand. A few weeks ago a certainly deplore, as I do, is the lack of an index. newspaper from 1791 turned up, which contains Sunday Schools,a Weidenfeld & Nicolson: Mao, by Jonathan Spence (£12.99). Rev. poem attributed to Johnson; but the bibliography has no index by Kevin Rafferty, The Tablet, 24 June 2000 enabling the user to ascertain whether such items have been published. There is no index . . . Nor does it contain an index of the hundreds of abbreviations used: one is referred to a key in the US National Union Catalogue. Oxford University Press: Collected poems, 1948–1998,byD.J. Obiter dicta Enright (508 pp, $19.95). Rev. by Helen Vendler, The New York Jonathan Cape: Experience, by Martin Amis (2000, £18). Rev. by Review, 24 Feb. 2000. Joan Acocella, The New Yorker, 19 & 26 June 2000. It is a shame that such a wide-ranging book as Enright’s should Even for an Englishman, Amis had terrible teeth . . . (In the index, lack, following its 509 pages, that most elementary aid for the under ‘dental problems’, there are twenty-six sub-entries, including reader, an index. Oxford is pleased to honor its poet by proclaiming ‘sexual potency and’, ‘suicide and’, ‘war effort and’.) [Index by ASI on the jacket copy that he has received the Queen’s Gold Medal for member Nancy Wolff.] Poetry; but a better honor would have been to enable his interested readers to find, by means of an index, that elusive poem they would HarperCollins: Boris Yeltsin: a revolutionary life, by Leon Aron like to read again. (£29.99). Rev. by Vitali Vitaliev, Daily Telegraph, 15 Jan. 2000.

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To me, the most darkly fascinating part of the book is the ‘Health’ Pulped for lack of an index section, with its conscientiously compiled Index listing facts and rumours about the state of Yeltsin’s health: Shakespeare scholar Jonathan Bate, meanwhile, is still waiting for ‘. . . hand injury, broken nose, typhoid fever, quinsy, tonsillec- coverage of his critical study, The Song of the Earth. This is not tomy, collapse, heart trouble, spinal operation, nasal septum oper- going to happen soon. The first edition (collectors note) was ation, depression, insomnia, back and leg problems, heart attacks, printed without an index and has now been pulped ...[Publisher’s heart by-pass operation, illness after election, flu and pneumonia, name not given.] “acute viral infection”, stroke rumours . . .’ ‘The Browser’, , 9 April 2000 HarperCollins: To cut a long story short, by Jeffrey Archer (272 pp, £16.99). Rev. by Chris Tayler, Times Literary Supplement,31 March 2000. Smallweed’s complaint Most of the pieces are warmed-over anecdotes, helpfully marked Why do serious publishers of serious books skimp on the indexes? with asterisks in the index . . . Here is an entry from a book I have just been reading: W. W. Norton: Lexicon of musical invective, by Nicolas Slonimsky Law, Charles Bonar. 4, 221, 275, 281, 297, 343, 381, 392–4, 399, (2000, 336 pp, $14.95). Rev. in Common Reader catalogue, No. 400, 403, 407, 412, 413...andsoon.There are 34 references, all 192, late summer 2000. undifferentiated. What is the use of that? What the reader needs is much more specific guidance, as in: birth, 4; education, 221; Instead of an index, this book – an anthology of ‘critical assaults’ employed as a trapeze artist, 275; fights duel with Alma-Tadema, upon composers from Beethoven through Stravinsky – has an aptly 281. In any case, this may be the wrong Bonar Law. I was looking named ‘Invecticon,’ in which composers are referenced by the for the Tory prime minister, whose first name, all other reference insulting adjectives that have been heaped upon them in the books claim, was Andrew. reviews collected between these covers. For example: Lord J of H (Oxford University) writes: Do you have any details of PIGS (grunting of) Strauss, 193 Bonar Law’s duel with Alma-Tadema? I can find no mention of PIGS (ringed) Schoenberg, 156 this in any biography. PITIFUL INSANITY Milhaud, 124 Smallweed retorts with a knowing smirk: Hushed up, I expect. I PLAGUE OF INSECTS Rachmaninoff, 137 bet it was over a woman. The body of the Lexicon, arranged alphabetically by ‘Smallweed’, The Guardian, 29 April 2000 composer, quotes generously from ‘biased, unfair, ill-tempered, and singularly unprophetic judgments’ which the editor has culled from the musical files of the past. An incredibly funny feat Sleepless nights for a millionaire classifier of scholarship. [Srinija Srinivasan, a recent graduate of Stanford University] SLA Publishing: Towards electronic journals: realities for scientists, considers herself successful, not because of what she is worth, she librarians and publishers, by Carol Tenopir and Donald W. King says, but because she loves what she does. As vice president and (2000). Rev. by Cliff Morgan, Learned Publishing 13(3), July editor in chief of Yahoo, she leads a team that sorts the ever- 2000. expanding constellation of Web sites into categories that will make Unfortunately, this review is based on page proofs, which did not sense to subscribers. When tough calls arise at work – like whether contain the bibliography or the completed author and subject messianic Jews should be listed under Judaism or Christianity – she indexes, but I am assured that the bibliography alone will contain has stomachaches that keep her awake at night. [And yet] ‘I over 600 citations, and the academic diligence shown in the rest of honestly spend my days in ways that I feel are engaging, compelling the book will undoubtedly be reflected in the most comprehensive and fulfilling and rewarding,’ she said. [Ms Srinivasan, now a index to date of work in this area. [We can but hope! How common millionaire, apparently has no editorial, indexing or information is it for books to be reviewed on the basis of page proofs only?] science credentials at all, except for the creation of the site itself. Not even her immense wealth can ensure that she gets a good night’s sleep.] Leslie Kaufman, ‘Personal business: whatever happened to the class Complaint from a stationery buyer of ’93?’, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2000 But [Antonia France’s] main complaint is that finding one’s way around stationery catalogues is no easy task. ‘They are not always very clear. For example, if you want to look for staples you won’t Who indexed Tolkien? always find them under “S” in the index, you’ll find them under the In response to this query, which appeared in this section in the name of the make. Equally, my dictionary was under “C” for April 1999 issue of The Indexer (p. 149), Rayner Unwin, in a verbal Collins. They do have a page colour-coding system, which groups communication to Hazel Bell, revealed the identity of the first things under types of products, such as paper and pens, but it takes indexer of The Lord of the Rings, who compiled the index that some getting used to.’ appeared in the second edition of the novel sequence. She was Dolly Dhingra, ‘The office gossip on . . . ordering stationery’, Office Nancy Smith, a Radcliffe graduate who was married to a friend of Hours, The Guardian, 12 June 2000 Christopher Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien’s son. Tolkien senior had intended to compile the index himself, but delayed so long that the publishers were compelled to bring out the first edition without it. Depressing index What I find most depressing in this book [Business @ the speed of Acknowledgements thought by Bill Gates, Warner Books, 1999] is epitomized when you turn to the index and look up ‘education’. You find: Education see Our warm thanks to the 29 contributors to this section: Schools. Jane Angus (Ballater); Ken Bakewell (Liverpool); Hazel K. Bell But this isn’t just laziness on the part of the lexicographer [lexi- (Hatfield); Philip Bradley (Dundee); Caroline Barlow cographer?]. For Gates’ book, like so many others in this mode, is (Bedford); Susan Bosanko (London); Erika Buky (Berkeley, just about how schools can use computers to do what they are doing CA); Drusilla Calvert (Blaydon); Liz Cook, Chester-le-Street; already, in a slightly modified way, without any sense that perhaps Jill Evans (Newent); Dorothy Frame (London); Ann and Tim the information revolution can do far more than that. Hudson (Chichester); Brian Hunter (London); Clare Imholtz James Tooley in Reclaiming education, Cassell, 2000 (Beltsville, MD); Mary Kirkness (Worcester); Cherry Lavell

104 The Indexer Vol. 22 No. 2 October 2000 Indexes reviewed

(Cheltenham); J. Naomi Linzer (Redway, CA); Jean Macqueen (Slough); Betty Moys (Badgers Mount); Norma Munson Contributions of review extracts welcomed by the editor of this (Rockford, IL); David Potter (Ilford); Adrian T. Sumner (North section, Christine Shuttleworth (please see inside front cover Berwick); Margaret Taylor (Garberville, CA); Susan Vaughan for further details). Closing dates for the next two issues: 30 (Bath); Elizabeth Wallis (Kew); Caroline Wilding (Knutsford); November 2000 and 30 May 2001. Nancy Wolff (Montclair, NJ); Pilar Wyman (Annapolis, MD)

Indexes past: The golden bough Sir James Frazer’s history of myth and religion, The golden Conception in women caused by trees bough, was first published in two volumes in 1890, then in Continence, required during search for sacred cactus; enjoined three volumes in 1900 and in twelve during 1911–15. The on people during rounds of sacred pontiff; by hunters and fishers; by workers in salt-pans 756-page single volume abridged by Frazer himself was Departmental kings of nature published in 1922 by Macmillan & Co. (reissued by Dogs crowned Chancellor Press, 1994). I quote below sample entries “Drink, Black”, an emetic from its 42-page index as an example of an index that East Indies, pregnant women forbidden to tie knots; reluctance makes one long to read the text, and of a type that may of people to tell their own names; bringing back the Soul of the Rice; the Rice-mother in the make indexers of technological texts wish that they might Epilepsy transferred to leaves do likewise. Fairies, averse to iron Africa, magicians, especially rain-makers, as chiefs and kings in; Feet of enemies eaten human gods in; rules of life or taboos observed by kings in; Fish, magical image to procure; sacred; treated with respect by reluctance of people to tell their own names in; seclusion of fishing tribes; external soul in a golden girls at puberty in; dread and seclusion of menstruous Foreskins used in rainmaking women in; birth-trees in Gorillas, lives of persons bound up with those of __, North, charms to render bridegroom impotent in Gout, transferred to trees __, South, disposal of cut hair and nails in; magic use of spittle Grandmother, name given to last sheaf in; story of the external soul in Greek belief that sun rode in a chariot; maxim not to look at __, West, magical functions of chiefs in; reverence for silk- one’s reflection in water; maxim not to wear rings cotton trees in; kings forced to accept office in; fetish kings Gunputty, elephant-headed god in; traps set for souls in; custom as to blood shed on the Holiness, and pollution not differentiated by savages; conceived ground; propitiation of dead leopard in as a dangerous virus; as a dangerous physical substance Animals, homoeopathic magic of; association of ideas common which needs to be insulated to the; rain-making by means of; injured through their Hooks used in magic; to catch souls shadows; propitiation of the spirits of the slain; torn to Hyaenas, supposed power over men’s shadows pieces and devoured in religious rites; so-called unclean, Impregnation of women by the sun originally sacred; belief in the descent of men from; two Jar, the evil of a whole year shut up in a forms of the worship of; as scapegoats; perhaps deemed Jars, wind kept by priests in embodiments of witches; external soul in Kid, surname of Dionysus Anointing stones, in order to avert bullets from absent Killer, of the Elephant, official who throttles sick kings warriors; in a rain-charm Legs not to be crossed Ants, bites of, used in purification ceremonies; for lethargic Lemon, external souls of ogres in patients Magnets thought to keep brothers at unity Apple-tree, barren women roll under, to obtain offspring; Parrots’ eggs, a signal of death straw man placed on oldest; torches thrown at; as life-index Pear-tree as protector of cattle; as life-index of a girl of boys Personification of abstract ideas not primitive Bag, souls of persons deposited in a St. Denys, his seven heads Bavaria, saying as to crossed legs in St. Michael, ill-treated in drought Beating a man’s garments instead of the man; frogs, as a rain- Salmon, twins thought to be charm Sardines worshipped by Indians of Peru Bed-clothes, contagious magic of bodily impressions on Standing on one foot, custom of Beer, continence observed at brewing Tobacco, used as an emetic Birds, cause headache through clipped hair; absent warriors Tobacco smoke, priest inspired by called Toothache, transferred to enemies Burglars, charms employed by Twins, taboos laid on parents of; supposed to possess magical Cat’s cradle, forbidden to boys among the Esquimaux powers; associated with salmon, and the grizzly bear; called Cattle, magical stones for increase of; influence of tree-spirits children of the sky; water poured on graves of; parents of, on; crowned; Yule Boar given to the; lighted brands carried thought to be able to fertilise plantain trees round Venison, ill effects of eating Charms, to prevent the sun from going down Watchdogs, charm to silence Chastity observed for sake of absent persons; as a virtue not Whale’s ghost, fear of injuring understood by savages Witchetty grubs Cheese, the Beltan Hazel K. Bell, Hatfield Clothes, magic sympathy between a person and his Columbia, British, use of magic instruments to procure fish in; taboos imposed on parents of twins in; belief regarding a physician and his patient's soul; rites of initiation in

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